Chicago Master Gardeners

Who We Are

Do you enjoy gardening and would like to learn more? Do you enjoy sharing your knowledge with others? The Chicago Master Gardener Program may be for you. All you need is an interest in gardening, an open mind and a willingness to share your knowledge with others.

The Chicago Master Gardener Program is for residents of the City of Chicago and nearby suburbs. Master Gardeners are required to do the volunteering in the unit that they train with. There are separate Master Gardener Programs for greater Cook County. These are in the North Cook and South Cook units.

The Master Gardener adult volunteer program is nationwide. Master Gardeners are a vital link in getting horticulture information to the public through University of Illinois Extension offices.

Thank you for your interest in the University of Illinois Extension Master Gardener program.

The Chicago unit will be offering classroom training on a weekday in Autumn 2017, roughly September - November. Applications for the Autumn 2017 training program will be available on this page February 1 - April 1, 2017.

The North and the South suburban Cook County units offered classroom training in Fall of 2016. Suburban units will be offering training in Autumn of 2018.

No units in Illinois will be offering online training in 2017. We hope to offer online training once again, and will post information as it becomes available.

Please keep in mind that you are required to volunteer in the unit that you trained in. The respective coordinators can inform you about approved volunteer opportunities within their units.

If you have additional questions about the Chicago Master Gardener program, please contact Sarah Batka, sbatka@illinois.edu or 773-233-2900 x 207.

Since 2010, Extension has been undergoing a multi-year reorganization in an effort to adjust to decreased funding, especially on the state level. As a result, the number of educators available for teaching the "live" training has decreased. Alternating program years will allow the Chicago unit to explore alternative training formats so that we can continue to deliver high quality training despite reductions in staff.

Over the past few years, interest in the Master Gardener program has increased dramatically and we have trained more students every year. Although the number of participants in our "live" training remains limited due to room size, we have had more and more online trainees. Although online training does not require teaching staff, it does require administrative time to acclimate trainees to the volunteer portion of the program. Taking a year off will allow Extension staff to focus on retention of the existing 300+ Master Gardener volunteers, provide advanced training opportunities and development their potential as project leaders.

Thank you for understanding and respecting our position. Comments and/or questions can be addressed to Ron Wolford at rwolford@illinois.edu.

Training

Master Gardeners participate in more than 60 hours of training on botany, vegetables, tree and small fruits, diseases, insects, soils, fertilizers, pruning, trees and flowers and organic gardening. The sessions are taught by University of Illinois specialists and Extension educators and are coordinated by local horticulture extension educators. The emphasis of the information is practical, yet research based. Students must pass a final comprehensive exam (all open book).

We are currently developing our Autumn 2017 Class schedule and will post our syllabus on this site as soon as it becomes available. You may take a look at our 2015 schedule below to get an idea of a similar program: